Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-219) and index
Making a covenant with death : slavery and the Constitutional Convention -- Slavery and the Northwest Ordinance : a study in ambiguity -- Evading the Ordinance : the persistence of bondage in Indiana and Illinois -- Implementing the proslavery Constitution : the adoption of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 -- Thomas Jefferson and slavery I : "Treason against the hopes of the world" -- Thomass Jefferson and slavery II : Historians and myths